Aunt Deming was Sarah, the oldest child of John Winslow and Sarah
Peirce, and therefore sister of Joshua Winslow, Anna Green Winslow's
father. She was born August 2, 1722, died March 10, 1788. She
married John West, and after his death married, on February 27,
1752, John Deming. He was a respectable and intelligent Boston
citizen, but not a wealthy man. He was an ensign in the Ancient and
Honorable Artillery in 1771, and a deacon of the Old South Church in
1769, both of which offices were patents of nobility in provincial
Boston. They lived in Central Court, leading out of Washington
Street, just south of Summer Street. Aunt Deming eked out a limited
income in a manner dear to Boston gentlewomen in those and in later
days; she took young ladies to board while they attended Boston
schools. Advertisements in colonial newspapers of "Board and
half-board for young ladies" were not rare, and many good old New
England names are seen in these advertisements. Aunt Deming was a
woman of much judgment, as is shown in the pages of this diary; of
much power of graphic description, as is proved by a short journal
written for her niece, Sally Coverly, and letters of hers which are
still preserved. She died childless.